The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of pepino plant which has been denominated by the varietal name, "Cascade Gold", and which is characterized as to novelty by producing a fruit of substantial sweetness, lacking the typical "Cucumber" aftertaste, and the stability of the plant to set and bear fruit in the area of Lynden, Wash.
The color of the fruit varies widely from a light green when immature to a yellow-green or yellow in maturity and exhibits a highly variable anthocyanin marking of fruit. These splashes of violet-purple markings can differ greatly from fruit to fruit, and plant to plant. Fruit coloration can range from an almost solid purple with no definite pattern, to an almost solid yellow with little purple, or just a light pin-striping. Coloration is not different from that of the species, nor is it particularly distinguishing. The skin is completely smooth with no rough edges and has a belly button stem area. Skin thickness is also reflective of the species as a whole. The flesh is yellow-orange and has the same basic texture as a musk melon, with a definite cantalope like flavor. This is in deferance to the flavor of the New Zealand pepinos which the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries describes as "resembling a musk melon", a fact also born out by actual taste tests with fruit from New Zealand and Chile. The fruit is also quite aromatic when ripe, and has many viable seeds. The flesh coloration and seed production distinguish the new variety from that as described by L. H. Bailey as being "flesh yellow and seedless under cult." There does not seem to be a significant difference in these factors when compared to the current commercial fruit from New Zealand, however.
Outdoors, the plant starts blooming in early June, and starts setting fruit around the 20th of June. It appears that it is irrelevant how large the plant is when placed in the field, as long as it is planted in the ground by May 1. They will begin flowering as stated. This is only true, however, if local weather remains basically within its norms. The mature fruits are harvestable in mid-September thru to the first killing frost. The fruit requires from ninety (90) to one-hundred and ten (110) days to mature.
For eleven years, the applicant has endeavored to produce a new and novel variety of fruit for his enterprise, in Lynden, Wash. In this undertaking, the applicant has through diligence, and trial and error, produced a new variety of pepino.
In 1979, twenty-four seeds from La Serena, Chile were planted in the greenhouse. Half of the seedlings were planted outside, and the rest were grown in the greenhouse. In both areas, the plants did well and produced flowers, but no fruit. Cuttings were taken from the three plants which produced the best overall characteristics of healthy growth and abundant flowers. This process of selective asexual reproduction was continued until 1987, when in mid-August the first fruit was found to have set. In total, twelve fruit were produced on secondary growth of the same primary branch, but none were able to mature fully.